Swimming pool slides for recreation and amusement are well known and typically comprise a ladder, a platform or seat at the top of the ladder, a runway down which the user slides, and an exit into a pool of water. To decrease friction between the runway surface and the user, many slides include a source of water flowing from the top of the runway.
Pool slides for in-ground backyard pools are generally adapted to mount on the pool deck. They may be straight slides, in which the ladder and runway is perpendicular to the side of the pool, or curved slides, in which the user starts at an angle to the pool side and is carried along a curved path that exits perpendicular to the side of the pool. The height of the slide ladder may vary, starting from about three feet. Eight feet is generally the maximum ladder length for home pools, while substantially longer ladders, with high platforms, are used in community or public recreation pools.
For curved pool slides, the configuration of the pool and deck area constrains the configuration and directional orientation of the slide itself. For example, some locations would only accommodate a left-turn slide in the portion of the deck planned for slide installation. It would be more efficient for slide retailers to have a modular slide structure accommodating different directional orientations, so that either a left- or right-turn slide can be assembled from the same set of components, thus avoiding the need to inventory both slide configurations. Similarly, it would be advantageous to have a modular two-turn slide structure that may be assembled in a left-right or right-left directional orientation.